"But what are the inherent rights of the creator of an intellectual work over his product?"

Inherent rights?

I want to agree with you that a person who thinks up something and makes it concrete in some form has some special claim on that, but I'm hard pressed to explain how that would be, other than other people all agreeing that is how it should be. That is, it's not a right, but a social convention.

At the very least, the idea that the owner of a copyrighted work can't at least control the distribution and price of that work reproduced in its entirety seems like an argument that is destined to fail.

If it's a digital work, the ability of the owner to control the distribution and price is an ability provided by social contract, social constructs, and law. It is impossible to physically limit the distribution of digital works, short of not releasing them at all, so any position that this control can exist in any absolute form is going against reality.

No. Fair use already supports that idea, as in the Betamax case.

No. Fair use does not cover reproduction and distribution of works in their entirety. The Betamax case validating time shifting. You've made an entirely faulty argument.

Time shifting is reproduction. Me scanning a book because I want to read it on my computer is reproduction. Both are prima facie copyright infringements that are justified by fair use. I'm not sure what the legal definition of distribution is, but copyright law primarily concerns making copies.